Camp eyes number one slot

27 March 2011 03:00

Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Lee Camp has warned Maik Taylor he has no intention of giving up the gloves after making his Northern Ireland international bow in the Euro 2012 qualifier against Serbia.

Former England Under-21 international Camp made a couple of impressive saves and looked generally assured in Belgrade, though a 2-1 defeat took the sheen off the experience. The 26-year-old will make his second appearance against Slovenia at Windsor Park on Tuesday and he has no intention of standing down when Taylor retiurns to fitness.

"I absolutely loved the experience," said Camp. "I know things didn't go our way but making my debut was a very proud moment for me and my family. I'm now here to be the number one. I got my chance earlier than expected with Maik's injury but I don't intend on giving up the shirt."

He added: "I'm a very focused and driven person and I now want to establish myself as the main keeper in the Northern Ireland team.

"It's been a great week and I've enjoyed every minute of the build-up to the actual game. Obviously I'm very disappointed not to finish a winner in my first game but there is plenty for us to build on."

Camp's best moment came when he produced a superb reaction save in the second half as Serbia chased an equaliser to Gareth McAuley's opener.

He modestly put his intervention down to good fortune, but believes Serbia had plenty of that themselves as they scored through Marko Pantelic and the livewire Zoran Tosic.

"I honestly didn't know anything about it," Camp said of his save. "It just hit me - I don't even know which part of the body it came off. There was an element of luck about it, but I'll take that, especially considering how unlucky we were with their two goals soon after.

"I really do think both their goals had an element of luck about them. On the first one the guy scuffed his pass and then I think Marko Pantelic got a little deflection which obviously helped it go in.

"The second goal definitely got a deflection and it really could have gone anywhere but unfortunately for us it ended up in the back of the net. It was really bad luck."